Long time, no see.

I'm going to start off by apologizing for the delay and the that I didn't finish the adventure week challenge. My internet exploded, I picked up a few extra shifts at work, I have no idea how to get the map-making software to do what I want it to yet, I went on vacation, and my dog ate my notes. I'll try again next year once I'm better prepared.

My vacation at the Thunder Bay Blues Festival was a blast. I got to see some great acts perform live, imbibe mass amounts of whiskey (which if you'll remember from last time, is bad for you if you're a minor). I also managed to take a page from the Gamer Traveller and will be stealing the legend of Ouimet Canyon for my next hombrew setting.

On the gaming side of my life, my characters keep dying. Twice in two sessions I've had characters annihilated in melee combat. If it happens one more time it'll stop being frustrating and cross over into comedy. The print version of the Dresden Files RPG came out at Origins. I don't usually comment on release news but I've been reading through the PDF for a few weeks and, even though I'm only half-way through, this might just be my book of year. It's exactly what you would want in a licensed game. It gives you rules for the setting and those rules actually support the feel of the original material. Also, there are in-character margin notes from Harry, Bob, and Billy the werewolf which are hilarious and helpful.

This instalment brings you a metric butt-load of news, a new section, and watch out for the link in the features section. I think it triggers a spinning blade trap.

For a place to game, check our Roleplaying Forum, with lively forum-based gaming and discussion as well as the opportunity to meet up with gamers in your area.

Randall Bills of Catalyst Game Labs showed up on the Paper Money podcast to talk about upcoming CGL products and explaining that whole legal thing went through in the past. This is good, because all the lawyer talk on their blog was confusing me. Listen here. I warn you the episode is loooooooooooong.

From July 25 - 31 is Read an RPG Book in Public Week. This is my favourite RPG holiday because its about normalizing and evangelizing the hobby, rather than marketing. Check their Facebook page. Then go read a game book on the bus.

I added this section just to showcase some of the gaming coolness on the internet that doesn't really qualify as news, but is still worth sharing.

I'm rather humble about my GMing ability, but I do pride myself on being able to do NPC voices and monster sounds. But this guy, who you may have seen on Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager, just put me to shame. D&D Monster Man and his return.

Well, that was a lot of text for all of you. I hope that was informative or at least entertaining, come back around next time for something rather similar, I expect. Until then I'll be back to playing LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition.

May your characters survive more encounters than mine.

Scott Wachter, proprietor of the Green Elk Inn.